Nova Launcher could soon introduce Nova AI, a built-in AI assistant complete with a chatbot, and a new Nova Plus subscription tier
there have been enough reasons to ditch nova in the past years, in case someone is still using it
- 2022 acquired by branch metrics, data harvesting company https://www.androidcentral.com/apps-software/branch-strikes-twice-with-nova-launcher-and-sesame-search-acquisition
- 2024 nearly everyone laid off https://www.theverge.com/2024/8/9/24217077/nova-launcher-layoffs-only-original-developer-remaining
- 2025 original dev left after being told to stop working on the open source efforts https://www.theverge.com/news/773937/nova-launcher-founder-left-kevin-barry-branch-open-source-android
- 2026 fb and google ads tracking https://lemdro.id/post/lemdro.id/35049920
- 2026 (this post) evidences for built-in AI that harvests your data https://www.androidauthority.com/nova-launcher-ai-plus-subscription-apk-teardown-3658932/
Yeah the only words they needed in the headline were “Nova Launcher sucks”
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Sadly my custom home screen depends on features I haven’t found in any other launcher, so right now I just have internet disabled for it with trackercontrol :/
If crazy levels of customisation is the reason you use it, Total Launcher did the trick for me.
Thanks for the reccomendation, I’ll take a look :)
Yeah its the customization features. A couple replies down I listed some of the features I use that I haven’t seen in other launchers. I’ll check out total launcher and see if it could work for me
No worries friend :)
You can place things anywhere down to the pixel, not just snapped to a grid like with Nova (though, there is option for a grid of apps, also).
It’s a bit of fiddly process if it’s complicated, but you can layer and place things however you want.
There is no dock, you can however pin items to show on every screen, which is basically the same thing, so that would also fit that criterion.
Also 4 swipe directions on icons for extra shortcuts beyond tap (last I used nova, it was just up and down? It’s been many years).
Basically, can highly recommend Total Launcher, though in fairness, I have not tried some of the other launchers listed by others here.
The one time fee for pro is pretty affordable, iirc. The Dev is also pretty responsive via email
What features out of curiosity? I haven’t used Nova since like Android 7
Largely stuff like widget and home screen padding, ability to place widgets on top of one another, set a custom widget for the search bar in the dock and place widgets in the dock
Some parts look kinda jank cause I haven’t really worked on it since I replaced my phone so I never finished adjusting stuff to the different size screen, but this is my home screen right now. I just use a lot of features to make my jank ass setup work, so its hard to switch. Custom fonts would be so nice if I ever did make the leap though
Well shit, that’s me.
Or it just keeps breaking and not reading my files.
Oh I am confusing this for Nova Video player.
Damn I was excited to switch to this Lawnchair everyone is so indifferent about.
Thanks for the reminder! I had switched to Lawnchair, but I just realized I had forgotten to uninstall Nova. Fixed!
Same. Just uninstalled that spyware
Anyone that gives a single shit about their data being sold to third parties should have dumped Nova a long time ago.
This is the first I’ve heard about any privacy issues. I dumped Nova recently because I found a good FOSS launcher.
Mind sharing which launcher you switched to?
Dragon Launcher. Apparently it isn’t on Play; you have to use F-Droid.
What a great advertisement for almost any other launcher.
Lawnchair is my go to if anyone wants a pretty simple and customizable launcher that respects your privacy.
What’s been everyone’s experiences in customization on it? I keep mine simple of fun background and a calendar and only the app drawer. No second pages
I second this. Lawnchair is great.
I’ve tested several popular ones and landed at Lawnchair as well. Plus point for being FOSS.
It sounded interesting so I gave it a look and realized that I’ve been using it for years now and it’s just so unobtrusive that I forgot about it.
Switched about a year ago and it works perfectly!
+1. Just last week they added the ability to import Nova backups.
I downloaded the APK for the old version before they added the spyware and bloatware, but i turned off auto updates and Google Play keeps trying to get me to update Nova launcher to the newest version 🥱
Not going to happen and the best part is there was no forced update within the app so im going to keep using the old one till it breaks.
Lawnchair is a pretty good FOSS launcher.
Can confirm. I switched from Nova Launcher a year+ ago. I haven’t noticed any downgrade. Lawnchair feels cleaner, better.
I guess proprietary software has no option but enshittification once an open source alternative exists. The proprietary product becomes strictly for chumps, so they make it a full on scam.
Do you know if Lawnchair can do a splitscreen with two apps? I got a new phone with lawnchair and I couldn’t figure out how to do it the other day. I know it used to be a part of Android. I don’t know if it’s part of the OS, the launcher, or Google just decided to remove the feature.
I’m not sure if this is even launcher dependant thing? I’m on pixel 9 pro, using lawnchair myself.
In your open app-selector, you should have drop-down to start split screen mode.
spoiler
God bless. I didn’t even see the drop down. My old Samsung and LG didn’t do it that way. And of course searching on the internet for the solution yielded jack because everyone has enshitittfied their search engines. Thank you kind stranger.
well if you didn’t jump ship in 2022 i guess this is your time
hasn’t update this app since 2021 lol. Good thing the pre-enshitification version worked perfectly fine without updates.
ew… it is my favourite launcher but I disabled updates once it got acquired 😭
Does anyone know of a launcher with similar customisability? All the active launchers I found focus on minimalism and no or monochrome icons, while Nova lets me arrange my colourful icons in whatever way I want, reskin them, etc 😐
Edit: Lawnchair’s Nova backup import feature in their newest beta release pushed me to try it out, let’s see 👀
Edit 2: ok it seems to only have lost my home-pinned website bookmarks, so this could be a workable solution 😊
I’d recommend Niagara Launcher but I think they also got acquired feelsbadman. We’re going to be forced into Linix Phones at this rate.
Lawnchair worked out pretty well for me, might be worth a try for you too? I just had to ignore that their promotional screenshots are all boring monochrome, turns out the launcher itself doesn’t force any colours :)
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Lawnchair runs fine on GrapheneOS.
And on pretty much every other android too.
Yeah it’s time. Nova was great but now it’s fully enshitified. I went with Niagara. There’s a short learning period, less than a week for me to feel comfortable, but I love it. Very simple and clean.
Same, it’s great
And yet another piece of software I have to abandon because of this dioshit cult behaviour.
Thanks guys. You really just went ahead and put your dick in it.
Lawnchair for graphene
Kvaesitso is really nice as well
+1 for lawn chair
Excellent. Lawnchair it is then.
I don’t hate Lawnchair. I just hate Nova making the switch necessary.
Niagara is good as well.
It’s not FOSS though I think? Free and paid tier. Website doesn’t say much about privacy etc. I actually have Lawnchair running silently and almost configured to mirror my Nova home screen but there doesn’t seem to be folders in the app drawer which is a pain, unless I have totally missed it.
Edit: Indeed, I totally missed it, in the settings. FFS.
Also spyware.
Thanks!
How so?
Requires network connection and is closed source.
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Well yeah that’s the only way but then you lose the meteorology API which is a shame.
It sucks because Niagara is easily my favourite launcher, but I can’t afford to have a proprietary app with insane privileges across my device.
It’s likely the only reason for the privilege is to collect coords to send to the weather API. At least it’s optional, and there are alternative ways to see weather reports, just not on the home screen.
I tried accessing Google Photos via my phone to handle a couple of things I had active on that account from before. Little fuck refused to let me open the app unless it had unconditional access to all my media.
It didn’t need to request the coordinates, it should allow me to just pick a city in the world from a list and give me the local weather based on that.
It is a design choice to force you to always stay connected and, in my opinion, is very shady. It’s okay if you wish you assume innocence here, I personally cannot.
Yeah nah that makes sense. I’ve got a weather integration in Home Assistant and chose to add relatively accurate coordinates for the API calls. That at least was entirely under my control, whereas their implementation was “use it this way or not at all”, demanding location access or no weather.
Sauce?
Well it’s a good thing those two URIs can be easily blocked. Besides you can get the app from their Github page (sadly no F-droid repo as closed-source), and pay for Pro (if wanted) via Stripe instead of Google Play. I also had issues migrating Niagara off of Google once I’d connected the two, but an email correspondence with the lead dev Max Rumpf got the issue pleasantly and quickly resolved.
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What have they done to my boy
You either die a hero or you live long enough to become the villain.
It’s true even for apps.
What does any of this do? What problem or need is it addressing? I’m honestly so confused by 99% of technology these days, it seems to be nothing more than an electronic pacifier for an entire generation of ADHD addicts.
By adding launchers you can customize the Android “desktop” way more in depth and it enables you to add for example custom app icons
I don’t think that’s the point. The point is the AI features being added for no reason
So basically any advantage over the native launcher is void?
